As it enters its eleventh year, Abacus Finance Group, has announced the promotions of Eric Petersen from Director to Managing Director, Rafal Rydzewski from Vice President to Senior Vice President, and Austin Rendell from Associate to Senior Associate.
Mr. Petersen joined Abacus in 2013 and he leads structuring, underwriting, executing, monitoring, and valuing investments for the firm. Earlier in his career he worked within the leveraged finance group at BNP Paribas and, prior to transitioning to the private sector, he spent over 14 years as a naval officer and F/A-18 fighter pilot with multiple roles across operations, maintenance, and as an instructor. Mr. Petersen has his undergraduate degree in English from the United States Naval Academy, his MS in Quantitative and Computational Finance from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and his MBA from the University of Southern California.
Mr. Rydzewski, who joined Abacus in 2014, is involved as an investment team member with structuring, underwriting, executing, monitoring, and valuing investments for the firm. He was previously an analyst in the merchant banking group of BNP Paribas. He began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers and has his undergraduate degree in Financial Economics from Binghamton University.
Mr. Rendell, who joined Abacus Finance in 2019 as an analyst, works as part of the investment team in structuring, underwriting. and executing new investments. He also performs various portfolio monitoring and valuation roles. Earlier in his career, he was an analyst at BMO Harris Bank in its food and consumer group. Mr. Rendell has his undergraduate degree from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.
“Now in our eleventh year, we are especially proud of the accomplishments of what has become one of the most experienced investment teams in our industry. As that experience continues to deepen, we are better prepared to meet our goal of always providing our sponsors with the talent and resources that will deliver swift and efficient service and give them peace of mind,” said Tim Clifford, the president and CEO of Abacus. “The strength of our investment team and our ability to move quickly are important aspects of why they can Count on Us™ and the effectiveness of our Total Partnership Approach™.”
Abacus provides cash flow-based senior financing to private equity and family office-sponsored, lower-middle market companies that have EBITDA between $3 million and $15 million. Debt facilities can be as large as $50 million.
In December 2021, Abacus was the administrative agent and lead arranger for the senior secured credit facilities used to refinance RainShadow Labs, an Oregon-based provider of private label manufacturing services to natural and organic personal care brands. RainShadow has been a portfolio company of Westhook Capital Partners since November 2020.
Since its founding in June 2011, Abacus has now closed over $2 billion in financings. Abacus is headquartered in New York and is an affiliate of New York Private Bank & Trust which was founded in 1850.
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